Reviewing the monumental character of English architecture, from the period of Vanbrugh to that of Soane, it becomes clear that the academic issues had been taken to a point beyond which it was impossible to go. At the end of the 18th century the modern spirit was in the ascendant. The example of the French Revolu tion, the rise of trade and the emergence of a vigorous middle class, pointed the way to vaster developments. Soane had almost prophetic vision, and he became professor of architecture at the Royal academy, training many private pupils. In the first quarter of the 19th century there ensued a further merging of Palladian tendencies with Greek detail. The "metropolitan improvements," engineered by John Nash and the Committee of Taste, were for the most part stuccoed conventions.
The 19th century from first to last was a period of style ex ploitation and pictorial experiment. The reason for the change is associated with the enormous development of manufactures. At the close of the reign of George IV. the country had passed from agriculture to intensive industry. Town life formed a magnet denuding the country-side of its rural population. The middle classes had become firmly established and participated in national affairs. The problems of housing and cheap food were foremost. It is not surprising, therefore, that the traditional handicrafts lost caste. The new economic conditions demanded mass production, the old values deteriorated, and revivals of historical styles be came inevitable. The growth of cities, seaports and manufacturing centres, called for buildings of complex character. The adminis tration of the country required public edifices (see GOVERN MENTAL ARCHITECTURE), education needed schools, religion ap pealed for new churches and conventicles (see RELIGIOUS AND MEMORIAL ARCHITECTURE). Civil engineering, at first associated with docks, highways and railroads, led to the rise of a coterie of engineers, among whom Rennie and Telford were prominent.
From i800 to 1830 the art of architecture in many particulars fulfilled the moods of the late i8th century. There was an ex tension of the Greek school, which had been adumbrated as early as 177o. But the ambitions of the classicists, who had developed a bias towards academic Greek, were in process of being checked by the romantic group, who favoured revived Gothic. Although the "battle of the styles" was never brought to a conclusion, classic remained in the ascendant. On the classic side the stim ulus of Greek, Roman and Italian motives continued almost pari passu with the revival of English and French Gothic. At
the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851 the divisioning was definite. On this showing one aspect of early Victorian art can be traced to the influences in vogue at the time of the Regency. After 1851 the classic school had recourse to emulation of con temporary French Neo-Grec, to imitation of old Italian models and later to revivals of the domestic architecture current in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Anne. The interest aroused in 18th century social life, especially by the writings of Thackeray, foreshadowed the Georgian revival characteristic of the last decade of the i9th century. Little more than 5o years separates the "artistic '8os" from the period of the "metropolitan improve ments" which were the triumph of Nash and the Committee of Taste. From 184o onwards the development of lithography, en graving and photography made familiar to all classes the pictorial qualities of historical architecture.